Just when we thought the state of the National Hockey League couldn’t get any worse, the US Men’s Hockey team asked us to hold their phones.
After a nail-biting OT winner in the Men’s Hockey gold medal game against Canada at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, the American all-star team flooded into their locker room to celebrate. Instead of taking the opportunity to spray some champagne and call their parents, the group chose to take a political stance instead.
At a time when Minnesota is under siege by ICE agents, and residents are terrified by the organization’s deadly attacks on their community, Team USA — which included Minnesota Wild hockey players Brock Faber, Matt Boldy, and Quinn Hughes — was partying the night away with Kash Patel. In a viral social media post, the Director of the FBI chugged a beer in the locker room surrounded by players rooting him on. Florida Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk could be seen draping his gold medal around Patel’s neck.
Patel later confirmed in a tweet that he was invited by the team to join their celebration: “I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys.” Patel also appeared in photos posing with Coach Mike Sullivan and several players, including New Jersey Devils’ Jack Hughes.
At a time when many Americans and people around the world would like to watch sports to escape the realities of this current US administration, Team USA was quick to co-opt its win with several high-profile MAGA members.
This show of solidarity with the current administration aligns far too closely with the NHL’s supposedly bipartisan desire to dismantle its DEI initiatives. After players argued that wearing a Pride jersey was infringing on their religious beliefs in 2023, the NHL banned all specialty warm-up jerseys from being worn on the ice. Many players who used rainbow stick tape were punished. At the same time, Marc-Andre Fleury was famously threatened with fines for wearing a custom helmet he had commissioned for Native American Heritage Night.
In 2026, the Carolina Hurricanes, LA Kings, and Utah Mammoths quietly opted to remove Pride Night from their calendars altogether. Notably, that bipartisan agenda to stay neutral on players’ beliefs did not extend to military appreciation nights or the Team USA locker room in Milan, Italy.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman backed his decision in 2023 to ban specialty jerseys, stating they were a “distraction.” Given that Team USA’s gold medal win was immediately overshadowed by their locker room antics, a question has to be asked: Were the jerseys ever to blame for disrupting the good old hockey game?
After all, the Tkachuk brothers have long established themselves as NHL players who love to mix hockey with politics. Mathew Tkachuk notably invited Eric Trump onto the ice to celebrate the Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup Championship in the 2024-25 NHL season. And before commemorating the Olympic win with Patel, Tkachuk couldn’t help making his partnership with his Canadian teammates even more uncomfortable by declaring America “owns the sport of hockey” after their OT win against Team Canada. Later, in footage from the locker room celebration, Ottawa Senators’ Brady Tkachuk can also be heard joking about Trump closing the northern border.
This was despite the fact that Canada won gold at the Winter Olympics in 2002, 2010, and 2014. The country also won last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off after beating Team USA in the finals. Team USA has won three Olympic men’s hockey titles total, and 2026 marks the team’s first since the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Unfortunately, being the statistical underdog wouldn’t keep Team USA from alienating their win further.
As more videos from the locker room celebration hit social media, the American players added fuel to the fire when the entire team hopped on speaker phone with current US President Donald Trump.
Trump invited the men to attend his State of the Union on Tuesday, which would be followed the next day by a celebration at the White House where the players would be awarded medals. He also floated the idea of sending a military plane to pick them up.
“We’re in. Can you pick us up in Miami on Tuesday morning?” one of the players off-camera asked. Trump responded: “We’ll get Kash and we’ll get the military to get you guys over. Okay, let’s go. Boys are going to the State of the Union.”
In true Trump form, the politician couldn’t let the moment of congratulations go by without putting someone down. So he set his sights on the USA Women’s Hockey team, who won gold several days before the men: “I must tell you we’re going to have to bring the women too; you do know that. Believe me, I probably would be impeached, okay?”
Trump’s comment diminishing the women’s accomplishments was met with laughter from the entire locker room. While viewers weren’t surprised by the misogynistic comment from Trump, many were disgusted by Team USA’s complacency in giving Trump the platform to make this diminishing comment about the women’s team. Despite what the US president may suggest, women’s Olympic hockey is no punchline. The women have won more medals than the men in hockey by a large margin and are employed by a successful professional hockey league of their own (The PWHL).
The US women’s hockey team declined the invite to attend, noting that they didn’t learn of the invite until late Sunday night, making it difficult to change their travel plans. The women’s team won their gold on Thursday. However, the men won on Sunday and were contacted immediately following the game with an invitation from the White House.
While the men’s hockey team opted to speak with their president, which ultimately led to him making these comments, many Team USA athletes used their platforms to denounce the current administration’s choices.
USA Olympic skier Hunter Hess told the press that “just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US.” He went on to say he was hoping to draw attention to the good his country has to offer: “There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t. I think for me, it’s more I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe that are good about the US.”
While the men’s hockey team partied, other athletes used their time in the spotlight to acknowledge the growing tensions in the wake of two fatal shootings of US citizens in Minnesota. “I feel heartbroken about what’s happening in the United States,” Skier Chris Lillis told the press. Another skier, Quinn Dehlinger, added: “The political divide in the United States is very prevalent, and competition and sports is always a way to bring people together.”
This locker room phone call isn’t as simple as a country’s leader contacting its players to congratulate them.
It’s an act of complacency from the NHL’s top players at a time when other Team USA athletes are experiencing harassment from President Trump for their gender, race, or right to free speech. By embracing Patel and Trump, the men’s hockey team is sending a message that they do not stand with their fellow athletes, and they don’t care to grow the game by building an inclusive, supportive space. These players didn’t speak up when the NHL removed support for marginalized groups because they wanted to focus on hockey. Yet, when the world needed them to keep it strictly about hockey, these professional athletes welcomed politics into the locker room with open arms.
The USA Men’s hockey team leaves Milan with gold medals. However, as their post-game celebrations are viewed around the world, hockey fans struggle to see their presence at the games as a win.
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